Ideas from Tuesdays Class Extended....

Tuesday in class we discussed how technology is a comfort to us and we don’t necessarily need it, but we are getting to the point where we wouldn’t know what to do if we don’t have it. I feel this is so true because for instance, what do we do when the power goes out? After a few hours of playing board games and sitting in the dark we are frustrated. When our phone dies or we forget to bring it somewhere with us we tend to feel we are missing something, even if we are not planning on using it. Many tend to say “I feel naked without my phone” It has become part of our outfits and something we need rather than a communication source or an emergency need.
We also discussed in class how technology is ruining our lives and taking away from our cultural identities. We are taking away from any special talents one may posses an this is creating us to need to be special and different. In the book Ribofunk people are being put into different “cultures” and identity groups and trying to find meaning in their lives. The technology has gone so far that they are feeling the need to change their human form into something else so they can be identified. Is this a result of technology? Possibly, but can we just blame technology or is it our own faults? Technology may be the underlying cause of it all, but we are a consumer society, always trying to have the next best thing whether it’s a technological advancement or any other form of advancement.
I think that the point brought up in class was really interesting because the part that got me the most about the book was where the daughter decided she wanted to be a bug and was changing herself into one, and the mom was turning into a cat. I thought to myself. I would be mad too if my daughter wanted to be a bug, but really a cat? I would be a dog first of all….but to think that technology and our world could advance to that point where we need to change our human form into something else to find identity and to have a culture is upsetting. I would never want my children, grandchildren, or even myself to have to change into something I am not. But when you look more closely at the “bigger picture” you see that we are already doing that, just not to the extreme yet. We are getting plastic surgery, and trying to look younger, sexier and what we “were meant to look like” we are trying to all be the “upper class” and have the latest fashion. Why can’t we all be ourselves, and show who we really are how we want to express ourselves?
I think there are so many things that goes deeper into the first part of this that I was discussing. The other day there was a question, what makes someone real or fake, and in reality only that person can know if they are real or fake. But why is it so hard for us to be real with people? Why do we hide behind something we are not and what is causing us to not show people our real background, what we stand for, live for and love about ourselves? I think this class has brought up a lot of good points, where the technological advances allow us to hide. The media which is now in forms of technology tell us what we should be and who we should be. We have these ideas of who and what we are supposed to be. I think taking away all the advances in our lives may cause us to see who each of us really are truthfully. We wouldn’t be able to hide behind a computer screen or text someone saying one thing and really meaning another.
Something that I have been curious about while I have been learning in this class is will we ever stop advancing technology or will it take us over. Will we be so dependant on technology that it takes away jobs, and it takes away what might give us meaning to our lives or how we identify ourselves? In the discussion group for Diamond Age I was just talking about how cool I think Dovetail is because that group of people didn’t allow technology to overtake their life. They went back to way before all the technology and make everything by hand and are doing things “old school” in a way. And they have their own culture because they don’t want to conform to the culture outside of them. Its an interesting topic to think about what technology can do for our culture or what it can take away from our culture and its meaning.